Flaky homemade biscuits with cheddar cheese baked throughout! These get extra cheesy flavor from sour cream in the dough. They're light and airy, crisp and flavorful, and SO easy to make!
These biscuits! They're light and fluffy and crispy and buttery and have just the right amount of cheddar cheese baked all throughout.
You get so much cheese flavor from the cheddar (of course!) but also the sour cream. It makes these extra rich and flavorful. They are so good!
Maybe the BEST thing about these biscuits is the bottoms get so crispy from where they touch the pan while baking. Crispy cheese is maybe one of the best foods of all time.
And did I tell you about the LAYERS?? They are kind of out of control. I mean, look at them!
The easiest biscuits!
Biscuits are kind of the best bread addition to a meal because they require no advance prep or rise time. You can have these in the oven in 15 minutes!
These biscuits require no special ingredients! (That's right, they have NO buttermilk and NO egg.) Just simple ingredients that you may even already have on hand.
Another thing that makes these feel so easy is cutting them into squares. No waste! No messing with biscuit cutters. Just form the dough into a square, and cut them with a knife.
Keys for making biscuits
- Grate the butter. Using a box grater will give you butter pieces that are the perfect size with minimal effort! I like to use my food processor for this (and the cheese), partially because it's easier, and also because it prevents the butter from being warmed up by my hand.
- COLD ingredients. You want your ingredients super cold for the best biscuits! This will give them the best texture once they're baked. Most importantly, you want your butter cold. I like to move a stick to the freezer before I start measuring ingredients. And if you have any down time in the recipe (waiting for the oven to preheat, not ready to cut the dough, etc.), just pop the dough in the fridge until you're ready!
- Not overworking the dough. Working dough creates gluten and gluten makes biscuits TOUGH. So it's important to stop handling it as soon as it's evenly combined.
- Do some folds. When you're getting ready to cut the dough into biscuits, you'll fold the dough over itself a couple of times. This creates lots of layers in the dough for deliciously flaky biscuits, helps any remaining dry bits of flour be integrated into the dough, and helps to get the dough into a nice square for cutting.
How to make homemade biscuits
Grate the butter and cheese. This is easiest in a food processor, but you can also use a box grater!
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, then mix in the cheese and butter with your hands until it's evenly dispersed and coated in the flour. It should look something like this:
Next, add the sour cream and all but a few tablespoons of the milk. Stir to combine. Switch to using your hands when it gets too hard to use a spoon. If any dry bits of flour remain, drizzle in the remaining milk and work the dough together. It should be crumbly, but not dry. Gently knead it into a ball.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, flatten it out into a 1-inch thick circle. Fold the top and bottom over the middle (like a letter fold), flatten it out again, then fold the other sides over the middle. Flatten it out into a 7 or 8-inch square. Cut into 16 squares.
You can bake these immediately OR refrigerate them for a few hours until you're ready!
These are best fresh from the oven, but will keep for 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Eat these with:
It's almost harder to think of a meal that these WOULDN'T be good with! Salads, meats, soups, roasts... all improved by a cheddar biscuit on the side. Here are some ideas that are especially good, though!
- My favorite beef + bean chili
- Chicken noodle soup
- Kale + sausage minestrone soup
- Easy beef stew
- Mexican chicken stew
- For breakfast or brunch: make these with eggs + breakfast meat and a green salad
Easy Homemade Cheddar Cheese Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup whole milk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Grate the butter and cheese in a food processor or using a box grater. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add in the grated butter and cheese and mix to evenly disperse. Once the butter and cheese are evenly coated in the flour, stir in the sour cream and all but a couple of tablespoons of the milk. Stir to combine. When it gets too difficult to mix with a spoon, switch to your hands. If any dry bits of flour remain, drizzle the remaining milk over them. Knead quickly into a ball.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Here you'll do a couple of folds to make lots of layers in the biscuits and form the dough into a nice square. Press it out into a 1-inch thick circle. Fold the top and bottom edges in (like folding a letter in thirds) and press it back out to 1-inch thickness. Now you'll have a long piece of dough. Fold the right and left sides in toward the middle and press out again into a roughly 7-8 inch square that's 1-inch thick. Cut into 16 squares, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, until biscuits are browned and cooked through.
Kathy Wheadon says
Excellent! Keeping things cold and book folding are key to getting those flaky layers. Yum